This invention relates to machines for fluid jet cutting of sheet material to provide discrete workpieces of predetermined shape or shapes.
More particularly the invention is concerned with providing an improved fluid jet type cutting machine operable efficiently on successive sheets or groups of sheets of material, and having means for removing the cut parts and scrap in substantially unchanged relative position, to an unloading zone thus facilitating sorting and/or other subsequent processing.
Prior usage of high pressure fluid jets for cutting purposes is well-known. Some of its advantages are cited, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,877,334 issued in the name of Heinz J. Gerber. He also mentions techniques and cutting tables as disclosed in other patents for dealing with limp sheet material to be cut, and refers to automatic means, such as computer control, for directing the cutting pattern desired. U.S. Pat. No. 3,625,813 discloses a fluid jet for cutting a wet paper web supported on a screen of a paper making machine.
A cloth cutting system employing a laser beam, but in some digitizer and work control aspects possibly analogous to the organization of the present invention, is disclosed along with prior art in U.S. Pat. No. 3,769,488 issued in the name of R. L. Hasslinger.
The present invention recognizes the importance, in a cutting machine of the fluid jet type, of providing improved sheet supporting and feeding means before, during, and subsequent to the cutting in order to enhance production.